The city is one step closer to hiring a grant writer.
At the city council’s Thursday work session, Human Resources Director Patricia Mitchell told the council she has received 23 resumes in response to the advertised position, with four having “some level of experience writing or administering grants.”
Immediately after, the council selected members for a committee to interview applicants.
“I think we should try to do it as quickly as possible, and if we can do it all in one day, it’s been dragging on for far too long,” Mayor Keith Gaskin said.
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones and Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard both volunteered for the committee. Despite her absence at the work session, Ward 6 Councilwoman Jacqueline DiCicco was also appointed.
Jones told The Dispatch a few others will also be on the committee, including the mayor, Mitchell, Chief Financial Jim Brigham and Chief Operations Officer Jammie Garrett.
The city council voted to create the grant writer position in September, and in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget the salary is listed as $50,000.
In December, the Golden Triangle Planning and Development District pitched its services to the council to create a needs assessment at no cost. But Jones told The Dispatch he doesn’t think that will happen since a full-time grant writer would be responsible for talking to different departments to assess the needs of the city and find grants to fit those needs.
“We’ll have a full-time grant writer to go after things for the city and in the interest of the city,” Jones said.
Good news for paving work
City Engineer Kevin Stafford told the council its planned $6.9 million paving project may go farther than expected.
The paving project is being funded by the city’s internet use tax. The city collected public feedback on roads that needed to be repaved during two public meetings in March 2023 and through a public survey.
Stafford said requests for roadwork have continued to trickle in, leaving him about a “month out” from advertising for bids based on a final list of roads included in the work. Gaskin told The Dispatch that the roads selected are being prioritized based on need.
Stafford said he hopes to see serious bidding before the council’s first meeting in May and to have a contractor selected by June. When those bids come in, he said, he is expecting them to come in about 10% under the original estimated price tag.
“In general, all the money should spread further than we’ve anticipated,” Stafford said. “Quotes that I’ve given y’all based on our estimates are based on last year’s numbers. I think that’s the responsible thing to do, and y’all know we also have contingency built in. Right now, knock on wood … we’ll be coming back to you and saying ‘Hey, all those streets you had to pull out and put on the deferred list, you may be able to add some back.’”
Stafford said this drop in pricing is based on a few factors, including the Department of Transportation not putting out as much work as they normally do, meaning companies that typically rely on that work are now competing for other jobs.
Stafford said he “fully expects” to draw bids from local companies along with larger companies like APAC.
“A high $6 million paying job is not a small job,” he said. “It’s one of the actual largest jobs that y’all have put out in the last decade or two decades. So, they’ll be interested in that.”
Stafford also updated the council on local highways, saying the 30% design plan for Highway 45 is complete, but it cannot move forward until it receives approval from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, since it is near a historic district.
Work on Highway 82, Stafford said, is “not anywhere near done.” So far, the repaving has only gone through a first course, and a second is soon to come, though repaving work has slowed due to weather.
Safe Streets grant
Gaskin recommended the council accept a $40,000 Safe Streets and Roads for All grant from the Department of Transportation, with a match from the city.
The grant would be used to conduct a study of the city’s streets to find the most dangerous areas in the city, Gaskin said, and the match could come from the city’s budget for next year.
Stafford said the grant would collect Department of Transportation information and public feedback to help understand which parts of the city’s streets are most unsafe.
Once the study is conducted, the city could apply for an implementation grant between $2.5 million and $25 million, which would be used to adjust the areas with the most serious injuries and deaths.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
